Weeds cause tremendous global economic losses by reducing crop yields and lowering crop quality. In the United States alone, agronomic crops must compete with hundreds of weed species.
In spite of the commercial herbicides available today, damage to crops caused by weeds still occurs. Accordingly, there is ongoing research to create new and more effective herbicides.
Certain aryloxybenzotriazole compounds are known to have herbicidal or fungicidal activity (U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,754; EP 108908-A2; EP 178708-A2; and EP 355049-A2). And certain N-phenylbenzotriazole compounds are known to have herbicidal activity (U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,822 and EP 107216-A1). However, benzotriazole compounds substituted with an aryloxy group and a N-phenyl group are not described in the art.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide compounds which are highly effective for controlling undesirable plant species.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling undesirable plant species.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description thereof set forth below.